Panther Risako vs. Beauty Ichigaya - Eye of the Beholder

Beauty’s plan was a simple one from here on out, really: she was going to lift Panther up, slam her down with a powerbomb, then rinse and repeat until either her arms got tired or her opponent broke in two pieces. There wasn’t much to it. Didn't need to be.

But, as with most things involving Panther, nothing was ever a simple as it could’ve been. The busybody just had to make everything so, so, so complicated.

”Ugh!” Beauty let out a distinctly un-Beauty like grunt Panther’s blow sunk into her stomach and knocked the air clean out of it. The crowd was quick to rally fd.dor support, throwing their all behind their purple-haired heroine, but Beauty just found it irritating. Even an insect had the grace and common sense to know when it had been squished.

If that’s the way she wanted to be, fine. They’d get this started off dirty, then.

Beauty reached over Panther’s rising body, grabbing her around the waist from above, and pulled her clean off the floor with one jerk, screaming in rage along the way. She flipped the nosy little woman over her shoulder, held her high, then threw her back to the mat with a wild gutwrench suplex, hammering her right on the canvas.

It felt good, in that brief moment, to land that punch on Ichigaya. It felt good to disrupt her attempted move, to drive the air out of her lungs, to make her grunt in pain. It felt good in that one moment to give Ichigaya a reminder that she wasn't one to be trifled with.

Like all good feelings, though, it didn't last.

Risako was suddenly lifted up unceremoniously, lifted upside down as the other woman's arm wrapped around her waist. For a brief second, the blood rushed to her head...that was, before Risako was lifted up further above Ichigaya, and suddenly flipped head over heels and brought slamming down, back-first, onto the mat.

The Queen of Queens' fans screamed as their heroine was slammed down, bouncing up off the mat before rolling onto her side, her face a rictus of pain as her body curved forward, one arm clutching her back. Risako was in trouble now, of that there was no doubt, and unless she found a way to turn this match around, Ichigaya's raw power would be more than enough to crush her.

Hm. That felt good.

Everything about slamming Panther into the canvas was satisfying. The look on her face as she was hurled up, the way her hair flew about, the sensation of control, and the deafening noise as she collided with the mat - all of it, good. Great, even. But not quite perfect. Beauty took a step back to admire her handiwork, running a hand through her hair, and she couldn’t help but feel that she could do better.

”So many powerbombs, so little time.” She rolled her shoulders as she strode towards her downed prey. ”What should I go for next, Reika? Running Powerbomb? Spinning? Or...oh, got it.”

Reaching down, she wrapped her hands around Reika’s throat, gripped tight, and lifted her back to her feet, choking her all the way. The referee began to protest, naturally, but she didn’t have much time to reprimand Beauty. A scant moment passed before she lifted Panther clean off the mat, threw her foreward, and drove her back into the mat, all while Beauty dropped down on her bottom with her legs split.

A Chokebomb. One of her favorites, but it had been a while since she’d gotten the chance to use it. Always a pleasure.

To say Risako was in pain right now as an understatement. Her spine throbbed with raw pain after being introduced so roughly to the mat. Her breath was coming out in sharp hisses of pain as she tried to crawl along the length of the mat, trying to muster the strength and the willpower to stand again-- that was, before Ichigaya could turn her attentions to her again. That, however, was a losing battle from the get go: before long, Risako felt herself being lifted up by the throat, her eyes widening as she gagged, her legs dangling off the mat as they kicked uselessly for purchase.

Then came the drop. Alarm bells rang in Risako's head: acting quickly, she would try to kick a pair of fur-clad legs up around Ichigaya's arm, hoping to use the bigger girl's momentum against her and take her down to the mat in an armbar...but if she failed to do so in time, then she would be slammed down against the mat, dazed and spread-eagled, staring up at the arena lights as her head rang and her body went limp...

It was truly amazing the lengths that Panther could go to be a pain in the ass. There Beauty was, with the match firmly in hand, if it could even rightfully be called a match, at this point. It was more about teaching Panther a lesson about butting into matters that didn’t concern her, and the price that came from being such a nosy old hen. A lesson that Beauty was enjoying.

That was, until Panther had the gall to resist, seemingly incapable of knowing when she was defeated. Just as she was working on getting her up, she tried to wrap her legs around Beauty’s arm, trying to change her fate with a desperate armbar, going for the submission hold. The audience surged, thinking for a moment, just a moment, that she might make the escape…

...then Beauty dashed those hopes by driving her into the mat harder and faster, before she could get the hold in. Oh, it hurt her arm, wasn’t the most pleasant thing, but it was far from the saving grace that Panther clearly wanted.

”Sorry.” She reached out with her good arm, grabbed Panther by the hair, and shove her head between her legs as she stood back up. ”Not that easy.”

That should have worked, Risako thought even as her move backfired.

With leg legs wrapped around Ichigaya's arm and her body leaning back to unbalance the towering blonde, Risako should have been able to take Ichigaya down to the mat in an armbar. One thing she had been forgetting about, however, and had been paying the price for underestimating it, was Ichigaya's sheer, brutal strength-- something that belied her elegant, arrogant appearance. And it was with this sheer strength that Ichigaya simply slammed Risako back-first into the mat, causing the Queen of Queens to give a staggered gasp before sprawling on her back, chest pumping, spine throbbing with pain.

She groaned a little...a groan that increased as she was yanked up by the hair, her head suddenly nudged unceremoniously between Ichigaya's powerful thighs. She knew what was coming, but her hurting body was too slow to respond...

*...Told her to stay outta this...specifically told her...not to do...what she was thinking about doing...*

A stirring whirlwind of frenzied thoughts rattled around the brain of someone waiting silently inside one of the shadowed hallways leading to the front row stands of the arena, her arms folded while examining the match carefully. Someone showcasing remarkable patience considering what was unfolding before her...namely one of her best friends getting tossed to the proverbial wolves. Panther was one of the more technically sound wrestlers she ever had the displeasure of being pitted against...still remembering the one time Risako almost had her almost tapping out from something as elementary as a camel clutch, simply from how expertly she had it cinched in.  

But everyone knew once Beauty started power-bombing you, it was basically all over except the crying. The narcissistic Beauty getting all sorts of perverse pleasure from the whole process that she'll do it non-stop until your basically too limp to support...or she gets tired of lifting your lifeless body around. The person in the hallway knowing that uncomfortable fact firsthand...just watching Panther go through it herself made her spine ache all over again. And it was about that time that the figure had seen just about all she could stomach. She went sprinting forward faster than the security guards could catch her as she leaped over the fence, and climbed onto the turnbuckle. Clad in her wrestling attire and brandishing a wooden kendo stick, Blade would vault off the top turnbuckle and lay into the back of Beauty's head with one helluva swing.

Gutwrench?

Jacknife?

Throwaway?

Sitout?

So many powerbombs, so little time.

Beauty took pride in her wide selection of powerbomb variations, having mastered every single one and even improved on a few with subtle changes. There were few pleasures in life that even came close to the feeling of that impact, that crushing rush she felt when she slammed a lifeless body on the floor. Particularly when that lifeless body had it coming. And, oh, did Panther have it coming.

”Once more unto the breach…” She sighed, content and soothed, as she began to lift Panther up for another slam, when the audience’s sudden cheers drew her attention. They weren’t cheering her, the little peons, which likely meant that someone had just came out. And if she had to make a guess on who that someone was…

She looked over her shoulder and, sure enough, there was Blade. Flying through the air towards her. With a kendo stick. Beauty had just enough time to process this, but not enough time do anything before the stick hit her back with the fury of a thousand blazing suns.

She let out an ear-piercing shriek and hit the mat, hissing and rubbing her back as the agony overtook, kicking her feet and shaking her head. ”You...you little…”

Risako was unsure of what was happening now. One minute she was being held upside down by Ichigaya, feeling the dizziness start to set in as the blood rushed to her head. She had seen Ichigaya's DDTs before-- it was, in fact, one of Reika's favoured means of putting an opponent away-- and knew that there would be no coming back from one of them. And so, a part of her had braced herself, in vain, for the colossal impact to come...a colossal impact that never happened.

Instead, she was dropped unceremoniously onto her front. In the background, she could hear Ichigaya shrieking, in pain and in rage. Her own back was still a throbbing, hurting mess, and it was with great effort that she lookied up, her lavender hair half obscuring her pained features, and saw that she and Ichigaya were no longer alone in the ring.

"Uehara...?" she managed to say gingerly.

Vindication could not have taken a more flawless form than by Blade Uehara vaulting through the sky with a cocked back kendo stick and her feral eyes targeting the one individual who was brought her nothing but misery, misery, misery. Not one singular person having been such a singular bane to her existence than the tall, narcissistic blonde with an ego the size of Saturn and who looked like she had seen a ghost after peeking over her shoulder. One second too late to do anything about the spirit of vengeance flying towards her and cracking the wooden sword square across the broad of her back.

A tumbling tuck and roll enabled Blade to land gracefully and spring back to her feet like it was nothing, the ring bell being clanging repeatedly to signal the end of the match and a disqualification win for Beauty. Blade striding past Panther to the tune of cheering audience members and her former partner's concerned words...neither of which permeated Blade's one track mind as she loomed over the writhing Beauty. "...cockroach, right? That's what you were gonna call me, right? Just like last time...Well that's alright...cause that just means I'll keep popping back up no matter how many times you step on me..." Blade muttered out before delivering strike after strike on the floored Beauty...barely being slowed down by the referee beside them calling for her to cool her jets while intermittently attempting to pull her back.